No-Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

With October upon us, Halloween is not far off. And there’s a new Halloween tradition in town – decorated pumpkins! Did you know millions of pumpkins are set to end up in the bin this year, carved and uneaten? So how about skipping the mess and the waste, and decorating your pumpkin instead? Even younger kids can get involved with these simple, crafty ideas, and it means the whole pumpkin will stay fresh till you’re ready to eat it.

Disclaimer: this post is sponsored by Environmental Charity Hubbub and their fabulous #EatYourPumpkin campaign.

Yes, today’s no carve pumpkin craft is a “sponsored” project, but it is in fact also a passion project. We have always been “big” on eating your pumpkin. In fact our annual Halloween Pumpkin Decorating tradition involves a lot of pumpkin soup and some yummy pumpkin risotto. However, this year, we go a step further – we used to use MOST of our pumpkin, but not actually ALL of our pumpkin. So we still created some food waste. Eeep.

Also.. we used to go for the “large” Halloween pumpkins popular this time of year – they are much easier to carve… and of course “look great”.

But did you know, that the smaller pumpkins actually taste much better?

So this year.. we are looking to decorate our pumpkins in an eco friendly, food safe way. Which then will allows to decorate for Halloween AND Eat Our Pumpkin. We plan to display them with fairy lights, as well as whip out our popular Jack O’Lantern Jars, so we can still join in with some “light up” fun.

PS: Hubbub have MANY Pumpkin Recipes for you.. but the quickest and easiest way to cook your pumpkin, is to chop it into segments, take out the seeds and raost it in the oven. Once cooked, the flesh will fall off the skin and you can use it in soup or risottos or anything else you wish (including pumpkin pie!).

Supplies needed for your no-carve pumpkin ideas:

This post focusses on our Lollipop Monster Pumpkin! Though you can of course also see our “I moustache you a question” pumpkin and the yarn wrapped spider web pumpkin. I will give a brief outline of these.. but the focus is very much on the No Carve Monster Pumpkin!

For the Lollipop Monster Pumpkin you will need:

• A tasty small pumpkin
• Some lollipops
• A little orange tissue paper (or tissue paper to match your pumpkin colour)
• Paper scraps to make monster eyes
• Black paper for the monster’s mouth
• Black marker pen
• A small skewer (adults only)
• Both regular tape and double sided tape*
• Glue stick for the eyes, though can use the double sided tape too
• Scissors

* if you don’t have double sided tape, you can mix a little flour, salt and water and make your own natural “glue paste”. Make it very thick – a bit like our puffy paint recipe.

For the Yarn Wrapped Spider web you will need:

• A tasty small pumpkin – one with ridges is useful to help “secure” the web a little
• some yarn in desired colors
• A little tape (to help secure it)
• Paper scraps to make paper spiders
• Black pen for the spider’s eyes
• Glue stick to assemble the spider
• Scissors

For the moustache pumpkin:

• A small tasty pumpkin or squash
• Paper scraps for the moustache and eyes
• A black pen
• Double sided tape
• Scissors

As you can see we have avoided non food safe supplies such as glitter, acrylic paint or hot glue guns. You can really do a lot with your pumpkin without these!

How to make a no-carve pumpkin monster with lollipop eyes

This no-carve pumpkin tutorial also has a video tutorial on auto play, if you would like to watch that too. Alternatively do follow the step by step images!

Make the lollipop monster eyes

Take two pieces of orange tissue paper and layer over each other. These can be square shaped or round, it doesn’t really matter.

Wrap around the lollipop. Twist at the stem and secure with a little sticky tape.

Repeat for all your lollipops. We decided to give our no-carve pumpkin 5 eyes. But even just two look great too… or you could have a whole bunch to let trick or treaters pick them out.

Cut out some white circles from paper or card and draw on a black dot.

Then glue the eyes onto your lollipop. As mentioned you can use a glue stick for this or the double sided tape.

Your lollipop eyes are finished! They already look so fun!

Making your no-carve pumpkin monster mouth

Cut out a paper mouth for your no-carve pumpkin, you can make it happy, wide open, or add more teeth if you want!

Add the double sided sticky tape and stick onto your pumpkin!

Attaching the lollipop monster eyes (adult supervision)

Make a small hole with your skewer (adults only!) that’s deep enough for the lolly stick not to fall out

Insert your lollipop eye.

DONE! Repeat for all the eyes!

Your no carve pumpkin decorating idea is finished!!! So… interested in the other two pumpkins?

To make the yarn wrapped pumpkin:

Wrap the yarn around your pumpkin once and knot to start with. Move the knot to the bottom of the pumpkin so it is hidden.

Then use the grooves to guide you and wrap more of the pumpkin. Go around many times in many angles, up and down  and side to side, to make your spiders web! Secure your yarn with a little tape.

Make the paper spiders

Cut out some spider shapes – one body, two eyes and four long legs.

Glue the legs in across each other together- this nowmakes eight legs. And add the body and eyes. Add some black pupils to the eyes.

Fold the legs a little and attached to the yarn spider web. Finished!

Ready for our final design?

Mr Potato Head Pumpkins

This is the simplest of the three no-carve pumpkin decorating ideas and is super quick and easy to make.. and yet really effective!

All you need to do is cut out some shapes from paper or card and stick them on with some double sided tape! Easy peasy! As you can see I went for a moustache and big eyes, but you can of course just cut out traditional jack-o-lantern features with triangle eyes and a ragged mouth etc.

Combine your decorated no-carve pumpkins with fairy lights.. and you have an awesome light up Halloween display!

Hope you love today’s decorations and that you will give them a go!

Eat Your Pumpkin this Halloween

So, what do you think? Do you think you will help us reduce food waste during a cost of living crisis and Eat Your Pumpkin this Halloween? As you can see, you can still have lots of creative fun with your pumpkins, decorate for Halloween have fun with your trick or treaters… so you really can “Have your pumpkin and eat it too”.

Ready to Eat Your Pumpkin but need some recipes?

Fear not.. hop over to Hubbub and check out their free online recipe booklet! A fantastic set of recipes from chutney, to cake, to curry and more!